Fred agrees to play Bridgestone gear in 2005

Thursday, January 20 2005

U.S. market with Boom-Boom

By James Achenbach @ Golfweek

Fred Couples, for two decades one of the most popular players in professional golf, will switch to a different golf equipment manufacturer in 2005.

The manufacturer? Take a dozen guesses, you won’t get it.

The answer is Bridgestone. Couples will wear a Bridgestone visor, play Bridgestone clubs, use a Bridgestone ball, and be a Bridgestone spokesman. Nick Price and Stuart Appleby will do the same, along with longtime Bridgestone star Shigeki Maruyama.

Except for its Precept brand, Bridgestone has maintained little presence in the United States. Now the company, using its own name, will dive headfirst into PGA Tour waters.

Bridgestone has armored itself with a new lineup of premium clubs and balls for the United States market. Bridgestone’s ballyhooed Tour B330 ball should be in golf shops by the first week of January, while the irons, drivers, fairway woods and wedges are expected to be available by March 1.

The Precept brand will remain in the United States as well, although it will be priced below the Bridgestone flagship brand.

Couples, 45, will leave TaylorMade (clubs) and Maxfli (balls, glove), where he experienced something of a resurgence the last two years. After finishing 103rd on the PGA Tour money list in 2002, Couples cracked the top 50 in 2003 and 2004. He also won a Tour event, the 2003 Shell Houston Open, for the first time since 1998.

Although Couples has not signed a contract, an agreement has been reached with Bridgestone.

To golfers in the United States, Bridgestone may sound a lot like a tire company. That’s because it is.

Founded in 1931, the Japanese conglomerate has become the largest tire maker in the world, with annual tire sales of $19.8 billion (Michelin is second at about $18 billion, with Goodyear third at approximately $15 billion).

But Bridgestone also is a golf company. It has been making golf balls for 50 years. In Japan, it ranks No. 1 in golf ball sales and No. 2 in golf club sales. About 40 percent of the Japanese golf ball market is controlled by Bridgestone.

When I was exposed to Bridgestone’s premium Tour Stage brand at the annual Japan Golf Fair in Tokyo, I became an immediate fan. The Tour Stage name was brought to the United States a few years ago, but it was not adequately supported with either a marketing strategy or PGA Tour involvement.

Now, relying on the Bridgestone name, all that has changed. Soon to be launched is a promotional campaign called Boom Boom Boom. Although this sounds like the Boom-Boom nickname of Couples, all the Bridgestone touring pros will be spotlighted.

“I am thrilled,” said Dan Murphy, Bridgestone’s director of marketing. “We have some great products, and so far the reaction from retailers has been very positive.”

• The Tour B330 ball, with Bridgestone’s seamless cover technology, feels a lot like the Titleist Pro V1x (that is, slightly firmer than some high performance balls but exhibiting a surprising amount of spin on well-struck iron shots).

Price has been raving about this new ball. When a touring pro boasts of 10 or 15 extra yards off the tee, I immediately grow skeptical. However, Price is among the most straightforward golfers on the PGA Tour and is not known for Phil Mickelson-type hyperbole (Mickelson once compared the impact of the Pro V1 to the steel shaft replacing the hickory shaft).

Golfers in the United States soon will make their own judgment on the B330.

• The J33 forged Combo irons feature distinct segments within the set. The 2- through 5-irons contain a tungsten insert in the trailing edge of the sole; the 6- and 7-irons incorporate the same low center of gravity as the long irons but without the tungsten insert; the 8-iron through pitching wedge raise the center of gravity with a muscle-back design.

• The forged J33B blade irons are muscle-back all the way. Traditional players will like the thin sole and long-neck hosel.

• J33 forged wedges include lofts of 52, 56 and 60 degrees. Once again, the longer hosel of these clubs will remind some golfers of golf’s grand old wedges.

• With the hollow J33 AirMuscle utility clubs, Bridgestone is talking about “spring face” and “greater trampoline effect” in a hybrid club. Traditionalists will love the look of these clubs, which are earmarked to replace the 2-iron (19 degrees) and the 3-iron (21 degrees).

• J33 forged titanium drivers, part of the high-launch, low-spin generation of drivers, are available in two clubhead sizes, 375cc and 420cc. Lofts are 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 degrees.

• J33 stainless steel fairway woods can be purchased in 3-degree increments. The 3-wood has 15 degrees of loft, the 5-wood has 18, and the 7-wood has 21.

“The new Bridgestone equipment is the product of years of refinement of the science of golf,” said Sadahiro Yoda, president, Bridgestone Golf Inc.

OK, I’ll buy that. Bridgestone, riding high with its golf science in Japan, would love to duplicate this success in the United States.